PC-Encrypt software?

[rx.jeff]

Hi

I thought I'd post here to get feedback as to what people's experiences are with this software? I'm reposting this in hopes of getting bigger exposure as opposed to posting it under another post as I haven't been able to find problems with Blowfish online and since the PCI-DSS PABP did touch a little on this stating that this was an acceptable algorithm format...

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Speaking of encryption algorithms... anybody have any experience with PC-Encrypt (http://www.pc-encrypt.com/_site/pce/index.mhtml) where their paid product is based on a 448bit Blowfish algorithm?

Is this "PCI compliant?" or acceptable form of encryption that will allow secure email transmission of cc data?

[andrewj]

I have no experience with this product, but Blowfish is generally considered a 'reasonable' algorithm. That is to say, there are no academic breaks against full round Blowfish (that I know of, but my knowledge is not encyclopedic by any means), but it is not generally used, or recommended for use, by government or banking systems.

If you are implementing a new system, I would _strongly_ recommend the use of AES, or TDES at a push. Personally, I would avoid anything else.

[jbhall56]

I have a couple of clients that use the product. I'm not aware of any problems with it.

[sublime]

Hi everyone,

I don't know if this is the right place for me to make my inquiry but I am new on the forum/ forums in general and I am interested in this: has any of you tried DriveCrypt PlusPack from www.securstar.com?

I am interested in full disk encryption and this software was suggested to me. I would very much appreciate it if any of you could give me some opinions on it.

Thanks!

[andrewj]

has any of you tried DriveCrypt PlusPack from www.securstar.com?

I have not tried this software myself, but I know that a new version of TrueCrypt has just been released that supports full disk encryption with pre-boot authentication. As with all full disk encryption products, I would recommend testing it out on a VM first to make sure it suits your purposes. However, I have been using and recommending TrueCrypt for creating encrypted containers for years now, and I see no reason why their implementation of full disk encryption would be anything other than excellent.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

[sublime]

I have not tried this software myself, but I know that a new version of TrueCrypt has just been released that supports full disk encryption with pre-boot authentication. As with all full disk encryption products, I would recommend testing it out on a VM first to make sure it suits your purposes. However, I have been using and recommending TrueCrypt for creating encrypted containers for years now, and I see no reason why their implementation of full disk encryption would be anything other than excellent.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Hi!

Do you know if TrueCrypt offers an ER disk creation option - in case of emergencies?

I do know that DCPP offers this solution and it's very reasonable for me.

Thanks!

[andrewj]

Do you know if TrueCrypt offers an ER disk creation option - in case of emergencies?

Do you mean like a rescue disk? If so, then yes. See:

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/rescue-disk.php

Once again, I would not recommend deploying this on any production system until you have given it a good exercise in a VM to make sure it fits your requirements. You can test the resuce disk option in the VM, simulating various failure modes to see how well you can recover from them.

[rx.jeff]

You may want to use Truecrypt personally first for at least a couple of months! When I first started using Truecrypt ver 4, I had no idea that the volume headers would corrupt easily and thus rendering me unable to access my Truecrypted partition on one of my backup drives at home!

Once you have a corrupted volume header, you will not be able to access your encrypted partition; at least not without going through a painful process to 'uncorrupt' it anyway (assuming you still have the relevant keys/passwords). This is best left for another topic!

So use it for awhile before you go ahead and put it on a production server is a wise advice!

[andrewj]

When I first started using Truecrypt ver 4, I had no idea that the volume headers would corrupt easily and thus rendering me unable to access my Truecrypted partition on one of my backup drives at home!

Really? I have been using Truecrypt on USB sticks and for local containers on laptop and desktop drives for years, and have never had a corrupted container. I guess YMMV.

[rx.jeff]

Yup. It is documented on the Truecrypt's site actually regarding this in their FAQ I believe. Wished I had known or that there was a pop-up after you've first generated your truecrypt partition to backup the volume header!

I'd back-up your volume header if you haven't done so to save yourself grief later if you inadvertently corrupted it!

How did I corrupt mine? I had my USB external backup drive (which was Truecrypted) connected to my laptop when I was performing a full format of my laptop's hard drive. I did not know that doing this would corrupt my volume header on my external HD!

After many grievious hours, I was able to find the solution.

[sublime]

thanks guys for your suggestions, they're appreciated!

[sublime]

Hey all

I am using this software now (DCPP) and I am very pleased with it. I am also using its Hidden OS feature and that works miracles for my sensitive data.

Just thought I'd let you know...and thanks for all your suggestions.

Cheers